Lining up for an Army of Crime.
Dieing on their feet
Dieing on their feet
By Don Simpson
They were twenty-three when the rifles blossomed
Twenty-three who gave their hearts before their time
Twenty-three foreigners but still our brothers
Twenty-three who loved life to death
Twenty-three who cried out “France!” as they fell.
Twenty-three who gave their hearts before their time
Twenty-three foreigners but still our brothers
Twenty-three who loved life to death
Twenty-three who cried out “France!” as they fell.
-- Louis Aragon, Strophes pour se souvenir
The phrase "army of crime" is a reference to a caption on the Affiche Rouge ("red poster"), a propaganda poster campaign with which the Nazis sought to present French resistance fighters as criminals: "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime."
The phrase "army of crime" is a reference to a caption on the Affiche Rouge ("red poster"), a propaganda poster campaign with which the Nazis sought to present French resistance fighters as criminals: "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime."
Based on the true stories of the Francs-tireurs et partisans - Main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI), Army of Crime begins with an Altman-esque intertwining of the very individual narratives concerning a multifarious hodgepodge of anti-fascists operating clandestinely and individually in occupied Paris (a city that seems to have accepted German occupation and the mass deportations of its Jewish residents with timid acquiescence). Eventually the characters realize that their strength would be in numbers and they trade their solitary acts of resistance to join together as an organized underground operation. Led by Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian), a real-life Armenian poet and card-carrying communist, the ragtag team also includes the hotheaded Polish Jew Marcel Rayman (Robinson Stévenin), Hungarian member of the communist youth Thomas Elek (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) and Polish Jewish communist Joseph Epstein (Lucas Belvaux).
By introducing the characters individually first, director Robert Guédiguian establishes their individual motives for their acts of resistance. Manouchian, for one, is reluctant to kill let alone handle a handgun; he explains to his wife, "I always felt revenge was an awful idea." But after becoming the leader of the FTP-MOI and making his first kill -- a grenade attack on a small marching brigade of SS men -- Manouchian never expresses any future misgivings about violence. "You can't turn back," he explains. Epstein legitimizes the group’s violence by stating, "We kill people, but we're on the side of life."
Functioning as a cinematic antidote -- or palate cleanser -- to Quentin Tarantino’s ultra violent Inglorious Basterds, this French resistance drama makes a concerted effort to focus on the moral and ethical compromises required when one acts in vengeful opposition to their oppressors. Guédiguian also calls into question the moral and ethical dilemmas related to the seemingly necessary acts of compromise between the free French and their oppressors. The majority of the FTP-MOI opt for total non-compromise (pointedly refusing to give up their comrades during interrogations), but there are some squealers and others, including Manouchian himself, who are willing to denounce their heartfelt beliefs in order to survive. Probably the most questionable compromise is made by Raymon's Jewish girlfriend, Monique (Lola Naymark), who engages in sex acts with a French police investigator.
Unfortunately, Army of Crime ends up being most interested in trumping up the sentimentality of the martyrdom of its characters, as is exemplified in the opening and closing sequences in which the captured resistance members names are recited by an off screen voice as they near their impending executions.
